Rumblings Xtra: Items that didn't make print

Friday

Aug 13, 2010 at 12:01 AMAug 13, 2010 at 8:01 AM

The Blue Jackets have been in kind of in the wait-and-see mode in their quest for a puck-moving defenseman – wait and see if a team in salary-cap and/or roster trouble needs to move somebody at a reasonable price -- and the NHL’s rejection of Ilya Kovalchuk’s front-loaded 17-year contract with New Jersey has probably made the “wait” part of that even longer. With the NHL taking a second look at other lesser, but similar deals, there is a lot of uncertainty in the market, which has slowed activity in both the free agent and trade market. An example of this is Maple Leafs’ veteran Tomas Kaberle, a puck-moving defenseman the Jackets have had some interest in and who is still available. Toronto wants a top six forward for him – that’s where Columbus exited – and is getting no takers, in part because Kaberle has only one year left on a contract that pays him $4.25 million.

Reds bench coach Chris Speier is expected to be a candidate to be Lou Piniella’s successor as manager of the Chicago Cubs. Speier has a history with the Cubs; he spent two years as the team’s third base coach when current Dusty Baker was the manager there. Baker manages Cincinnati now. Ironically, Speier was talking about the Cubs with a Chicago Tribune reporter during the Reds-Cubs series in Wrigley Field last week when Cubs general manager Jim Hendry interrupted the interview to say “hello’ to Speier. "Yeah, he asked me if I was going to interview," Speier said to Hendry. "I said: 'That's up to Jim.'" Hendry called Speier “a good man, and one of my favorite players as a kid.” He declined to say whether the former big league shortstop would get an interview be a candidate for the job. Cubs triple-A (Iowa) manager Ryne Sandberg in the only confirmed candidate at this point.

After directing an ineffective passing game last season that suffered from a lack of quality receivers, Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer has made it clear that he has no problem with having two attention seekers – Chad Ochocinco and Owens – in his receiver corps. He’s just happy to have the kind of weapons that make the team’s passing game effective again. “The defense would roll three people to Chad’s side and we were done,” Palmer told Yahoo.com. “It’s extremely frustrating. When we were throwing it for 400 yards a game and losing, that’s frustrating, too. But to lose and one of the big reasons we lost was our inability to move the ball down the field, that was very frustrating. I love throwing the ball over their heads. I love throwing the deep outs, the deep digs. We need to do that to be the balanced offense we talk about.”

LeBron James’ longtime girlfriend told Harper’s Bazaar that “Cleveland is home; nothing is going to change about that” and admitted that she wasn’t that thrilled about life in Miami. “Personally, Miami was not my favorite place,” Savannah Brinson said. “Vacationing there is great: You go for three days and get some sun, and it's time to go home. (But) when they told me it doesn't get any colder than 50 degrees, that sold me. We get below-zero weather in Cleveland. .I can't wait to have a sunny Christmas. It will definitely be an adjustment, but we'll make it. We're not complaining.” The former Cavaliers star’s reported $110-million, six-year deal (as well as $30 million or so in endorsements) might help making it a little easier, although Brinson plans to split her time between Akron (where she grew up) and Miami. She doesn’t want to uproot their sons – LeBron Jr., 5, and Bryce Maximus, 3 – from the old neighborhood. While some cynics might suggest that having LeBron in Miami and Savannah in Akron could be recipe for disaster with a gorgeous array of Miami groupies ready to descend on the city’s newest star, Brinson’s mother, Jennifer, made it clear that she doesn’t see a problem. “Don't you think he knows the difference between ruthlessness and love?” she told the magazine. “If LeBron was going to do something shady, he can do that around the corner. He doesn't have to go to Miami.”

For Indians’ fans who still angry over the trade that sent Victor Martinez to the Boston Red Sox for pitcher Justin Masterson, we offer this stat courtesy of The (Willougby) News-Herald’s Jim Ingraham: Since the Tribe made that deal, Masterson has made 33 starts, which is the equivalent of a full season for a major league starter. Masterson’s record in those games: 5-18. In his last seven starts this season, Masterson is 1-4 with a 6.98 ERA. In his 23 starts this season overall, he is 4-11 with a 5.47 ERA. For what it’s worth, in 82 games this year Martinez is hitting .282 with 10 home runs and 41 RBI.

Center Nick Mangold would like to get a contract extension from the Jets, but the former Ohio State star is resigned to the fact that it’s going to happen until after the season, the final of his five-year rookie contract. The former Ohio State star is scheduled to earn $3.3 million this year and is highly-valued by the Jets, but the uncertain labor landscape has ruined any chance of a deal.

After coach Eric Mangini had warned the Browns about using social networking sites responsibily – cornerback Brandon McDonald had effected that speech by posting a vulgar message on his Twitter account directed at Cincinnati receiver Terrell Owens - rookie cornerback Joe Haden tweeted that a teammate was fined for a cell phone going off during a team meeting. Haden subsequently apologized to his coach. For his part, Mangini sees some value to the social networking sites as a way for players to connect with the fans, although he called the team’s policy a work in progress. Seventeen Browns players use Twitter, topped by return specialist/wide receiver Jose Cribbs has more than 33,000 followers. The insults McDonald directed as Owens were later removed from the website and apparently didn’t make T.O. mad. When he was asked by reporters if he has seen what McDonald had tweeted about him, Owens answered with an insult of his own. “Who?" Owens said. "I don't even know who he is. Ronald McDonald?”

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